Friday, 26 June 2009

As we await the release of the report of the enquiry conducted into the scandal involving Alhaji Munkata, by the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI), all sorts of rumours about what it contains, have already started to percolate through the wall of secrecy built around it.

A particularly interesting rumour, claims that some of those in the Mills administration, who it is alleged were economical with the truth about exactly who bore the cost of the trip to Abidjan, which was undertaken by Alhaji Munkata and Co in an air force plane earlier this year, are pulling strings to ensure that there is a cover-up of sorts in the affair.

C!Hopefully, the president will not let those clever individuals blindside him under any circumstances – as his authority, despite all the powers the constitution gives him, ultimately rests upon his perceived moral uprightness: in a nation whose political class is widely perceived by the general public to be full of greedy liars and amoral individuals.

If there is any attempt at a cover up at any level, the president will wake up to discover that a minor scandal involving the indiscretions of a callow youth, who did not know where the dividing line between government expenditure and his personal household’s shopping bills was, has been transformed into a full-blown cover-up scandal of Watergate proportions, called the “Alhaji Munkata girlfriend-diapergate cover-up scandal."

The scandal questions his regime’s commitment to good governance principles and his own sincerity as a reforming politician.

Clearly, if the report says anywhere in it (as it is rumoured to), that there was immoral conduct on Alhaji Munkata’s part, in that scandal, it will obviously make it well nigh impossible for the president to ask him to return to his position as minister for youth and sports.
That stinging criticism of his character, if true, does offer the Mills administration the opportunity to finally rid itself of a man, who sadly, so clearly does not have the moral fibre to serve as a minister in it – if the government is truly committed to running a transparent system, that is.

Using government funds to pay for his girlfriend to travel to Germany, and to pay for his household expenses, are not mere indiscretions – they amount to an abuse of office and stealing public funds: both serious crimes that ought to be prosecuted.

It is such a pity that Alhaji Munkata did not do the decent thing when the scandal first broke – and resign from his position of his own accord.

Trying to explain things away with those mealy-mouthed excuses he gave initially, made him come across as someone who was not man enough to take full responsibility for his actions, and certainly did little to paint a positive picture of his character.

If he had chosen to apologise to the president, and the nation, for letting everyone in Ghana down, he might have laid the basis for eventually salvaging his reputation somewhat.

That would have started the process of rehabilitating his dented public image – and enabled him to move on with the rest of his life with some dignity.

It is still not too late to do so – and one hopes that he will render an apology to the president and the nation in due course: whatever the outcome of the BNI investigation.

If there is anything in the BNI’s report that leads one to conclude that some government spokespersons did indeed prevaricate, in as far as the issue of whom exactly it was that bore the cost of the flight to Abidjan in that air force plane, then they too must do the decent thing and resign their positions – as they too would be guilty of conduct unbecoming of members of a regime that says it wants to be a transparent administration.

They must be prepared to sacrifice their positions in the interest of the nation and their party – if the Mills administration and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) want to be taken seriously about their commitment to reforming a corrupt system: by underpinning the new regime with an ethos of transparency.

This is the Mills administration’s litmus test – and how the president reacts to the BNI’s report on the scandal involving Alhaji Munkata will define his regime for the rest of its tenure.

The government will immediately lose its moral authority if it tries to cover up any aspect of this scandal.

Furthermore, if there are criminal implications in any aspect of that scandal and it does not result in prosecution of all those who are culpable, just how will the government be able to justify the double standards that not prosecuting those individuals would represent?

More so, when the general public is demanding that it deals with all those who abused their positions whiles in office, during the tenure of the previous New Patriotic Party (NPP) regime, by prosecuting them?

And the Mills regime would have lost the battle for occupying the high moral ground in Ghanaian politics, even before it has started – and that would be a real pity for our nation: and all those who placed such high hopes in President Mills.

The president must therefore ensure that there is no cover-up under any circumstances in this matter – lest it turns into a full-blown cover-up scandal christened the “Alhaji Munkata girlfriend-diapergate cover-up scandal.”

Post Script: The report of the BNI investigation was released shortly after this piece was written. One commends the president for acting to uncover the veracity or otherwise of the allegations against Alhaji Munkata, the former minister for youth and sports.

However, I can safely predict that not many people (including me) will believe that that BNI report is not a cover-up of sorts – and that it will come back to haunt all those who ensured that this was the eventual outcome the probe arrived at: in order to save their own skins.

Incidentally, one should also commend Alhaji Munkata, for resigning and finally apologizing for his actions – but like many things to do with politicians, such as the flat denial during the NPP’s tenure by the former minister for presidential affairs, Mr. Kwadjo Mpianin, that he ever telephoned Mr. Kofi Asante (the then executive secretary of the Energy Commission) to ask him to buy a four-wheel drive luxury vehicle with a fridge in it for the Mamponghene (who was a board member of the Energy Commission at the time); those clever individuals who think that they have now finally crucified the accountant whose allegations sparked off the BNI probe, will find that it is he, rather than them, who will have the last laugh in the end.

One hopes for their sake that they will not soon be contending with a full-blown Alhaji Munkata girlfriend-diapergagte cover-up scandal.

They will then discover, when their perfidy is finally revealed to the world, that Ghana is no longer a nation in which wrong-doing by politicians, can be hidden from the general public for long.

I simply do not believe that the accountant made up those allegations – certainly not the one to do with the US$10,000 money for the Abidjan airport landing fees.

Saying that there is no basis for that particular allegation is too convenient an outcome for those who would have had to resign from the government had the probe confirmed that it was indeed true that Alhaji Munkata did in fact collect that sum of money from the ministry, ostensibly to pay for the air force plane’s landing fees at Abidjan airport.

I am tempted to agree with those who say that it would appear that a number of faceless individuals in the Osu Castle, have conspired to make the accountant a sacrificial lamp – slaughtered callously to enable them save their own positions in the government: a most dishonorable and cowardly thing to do (if I may add).

The truth about that US$10,000 will certainly come out one day, as sure as day follows night – their shenanigans notwithstanding: and they can mark that on their office walls in the Osu Castle, our seat of government. Hmmm, Ghana – eyeasem oo: asem ebaba debi ankasa!

In the 21st century ICT age, the international community must never tolerate any ruling regime anywhere on the planet Earth, which brutalizes its own people, under any circumstances – and the lame and unacceptable excuse that standing up to such regimes, by publicly condemning their acts of repression in no uncertain terms, amounts to an interference in the internal affairs of their nations, must not be made by leaders of the world’s leading democracies. Over the past few weeks, the whole world has witnessed the brutal and repressive images caught on thousands of mobile phone video cameras in the streets of Tehran, showing harrowing scenes involving vicious riot policemen and murderous motorcycle gangs (agents of the Iranian regime now incredibly engaged in the repression of the Iranian people), brutalizing peaceful demonstrators. There can be no doubt whatsoever that those abominable acts of cruelty clearly amount to crimes against humanity.

A proud and noble people with a civilization that dates back thousands of years, must not be left by the rest of the civilized world, to the mercy of brutish myrmidon-gangs on motorcycles, and callous out-of-control riot policemen – doing the bidding of a hypocritical Iranian leadership: apparently respectable and religious Mullahs, whom one naively once thought held power because of their moral authority, but whom it now turns out in reality are cruel ogres, who run a nasty and oppressive dictatorship based on brute force. Far from being God-fearing men of religion, it is now obvious to all of humankind that they run a dictatorship, which oversees a repressive system that is prepared to kill even defenceless women in order to hang on to power – such as Neda, the brave young Iranian woman seen dying in a Tehran street on millions of TV screens worldwide – the tragic victim of a sniper enforcing a tyrannical regime’s edict. The inhumanity displayed by the Iranian leadership towards those of their citizens who insist on their constitutional right to demonstrate peacefully in public, shows clearly why the international community must not allow an Iran under their leadership, to develop a nuclear weapons programme under any circumstances. The international community must do all it can to enable the people of Iran rid themselves of a tyrannical regime that now seeks to enslave them.

Now that the scales have finally fallen off the eyes of those (including me) who used to regard him as a feisty developing world folk hero, who defied the imperialism of right-wing Western leaders such as George Bush and Dick Cheney, it is now patently clear to all that President Ahmadenijad, is in fact just another nasty little dictator, willing to kill to remain in power. Both the supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khamanei, and President Ahmadenijad, are ultimately responsible for the repression now going on in Iran, and must be indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) – along with leaders of their ilk such as: George Bush; Dick Cheney; Tony Blair; the Burmese junta’s leaders; President Yaya Jameh of the Gambia; the Eritrean leader; that lunatic modern-day Adolf Hitler, Osama Bin Laden; the Islamist leaders now busy destroying the Somali people in the name of Islamic purity; as well as the leadership of the Afghan and Pakistani Talibans.

The world has had enough of extremists and megalomaniacs who seek to impose their will on others, in their mad quest for world domination. All that humankind wants is to simply be allowed to live in peace, in all four corners of the vulnerable and fragile planet Earth that we share together – and as the good people of Iran fight to regain their freedom again, the members of the one human race must salute them for their bravery: for, their courageous fight for freedom, is also the fight of ordinary people the world over. We all share a common humanity and must do all we can to ensure that all the world’s peoples are free to live in peaceful and tolerant societies – and the indictment by the ICC, of the leaders of oppressive regimes, such as that of Iran today, is a powerful weapon in that fight. The ICC must indict Iran’s leaders as soon as it is practicable to do so. That is the most effective way of preventing the world’s other dictators from maiming and killing their people merely in order to hang on to power. Enough is enough – humankind has had enough of the world’s nasty little dictators.

Tuesday, 23 June 2009

In a city in which water seldom flows through taps in properties across the filthy conurbation that unfortunately serves as our nation’s capital, one has to be extremely cautious where one eats, outside one’s own home, during the working day. To avoid trouble with possible food-poisoning, I simply skip eating out and restrict myself to some bananas or hot-off-the-fire roasted plantain, if I am peckish when not at home – so in the evening of 16th June, 2009, I settled down to my supper at home after a series of unpleasant experiences to do with endless day-long frustration with officialdom: trying to find, amongst other tasks on my to-do list for that day, a vital document that incredibly, apparently has disappeared into thin air, from the deeds registry of the Lands Commission, which, oddly, is still housed in the Land Title Registry head office building, near the headquarters of the Customs Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) in the ministries area, instead of their Cantonments head office building.

It so happens that whiles doing my “rounds” for that day, I also passed by the ministry of communications to see if I could reach the minister to get a direct response from him, for a previous note I had left for him with his secretary, asking him to respond to a rumour I had heard about him, to the effect that one of the mobile phone companies had given him a Toyota saloon car as a personal gift. He wasn’t in, so I left yet another note with his secretary and departed – hoping to bring some sort of closure to that pure nonsense on stilts. Just after I had taken a few spoonfuls of the vegetarian meal I was having at home in McCarthy Hill, after having finally settled down in the evening to my supper after a frustrating day out in town, I received a telephone call from the minister of communications, Haruna Iddrisu, at about 18.30 GMT – the gist of which was that I was trying to blackmail him. I simply couldn’t believe my ears. I was so incensed that I immediately interrupted him mid-sentence, asked him to stop right there, and told him exactly where to get off – and that he ought to google the word “ghanapolitics” to read the article entitled: “Protect Ghanaian Consumers from Telecoms Companies in Ghana” that I had written and posted online (in which I had mentioned the confounded rumour – and had also gone on to ask him to share his response to the note I had previously left for him with his secretary, with the rest of the world), and demanded that he apologise to me after he had read the article in my web-blog.

I was flabbergasted that he was actually accusing me of blackmailing him. Just what possessed him to say such a monstrous thing, one wonders? The double-barreled-question an ignoramus and a fool like me would like that genius of a young minister to answer for me is: Since when did blackmailers start publicly asking about the veracity or otherwise of allegations against their intended victim, which they had heard of, prior to even meeting him or her – and why did he not just accept that my perfectly innocent query was in good faith, simply deny it, and move on? Anyone reading the article would not be in any doubt whatsoever that I did not believe the rumour in the slightest myself – so one can imagine my exasperation with him that he had had the temerity to accuse me of trying to blackmail him. Would a blackmailer leave an open note everyone could read, with the secretary of a minister in the government, whom he was querying about the veracity or otherwise, of a rumour he had heard about that selfsame minister? Why did it not strike him that not believing such a thing about him, perhaps I had only wanted to be in a position to quote his denial of the allegation in my article – and had therefore tried to contact him to confirm my disbelief of that rumour? Did I not say openly in that article that I did not believe that he would accept any such gift?

The annoying thing, dear reader, is that I had mentioned that darned grapevine story just in passing in my article merely to emphasize the point that the telecoms companies were more or less a law unto themselves: which was the subject of the article – and had gone to his office in order to elicit a response from him, so I could confirm his denial of the rumour in my article: whiles making my point about the not unheard of possibility, in our environment, of some of the telecoms companies buying public officials, to enable them get away with their perfidy (i.e. the rip off, on a massive scale, of mobile phone users in Ghana – with the far too expensive and atrocious quality service they provide Ghanaians). Indeed, so powerful are those financial behemoths, that they have even been able to get some well-educated buffoon in Parliament, to speak on their behalf – to try and get the “talk tax” that has apparently ended up being paid by those shysters, offloaded unto the weary shoulders of the already overburdened Ghanaian taxpayers, who have to shoulder the excesses of Ghana’s political class – including their obscene ex-gratia demands on the public purse – in addition to their everyday woes of having to put up with the lack of potable water in their homes and an erratic supply of electricity, as they see their quality of life deteriorate steadily before their very eyes whiles politicians blithely tell them they have never had it so good since Ghana gained her freedom in 1957.

Why, have the telecoms companies not sufficiently demonstrated their ruthlessness to the minister for communications, in the callous way they have been endangering the health of Ghanaians – as they site their masts even in the homes of people who are probably completely ignorant of the possible harmful effects of the radiation from those masts? But I digress. Just what is it about Ghanaian politicians that makes so many of them change so quickly when they come to power – and put on such airs? Why didn’t a highly intelligent politician, who is noted for being so incredibly media-savvy, simply not tell me that the rumour was without any foundation – and leave it at that and thank me for letting him know about it: and not to hesitate to seek clarification from him again, anytime I needed to do so, about any issue concerning his work and that of his ministry? I can perfectly understand a crooked businessperson who hypocritically presents a respectable face to the world, whiles secretly running a criminal syndicate engaged in say illegal logging or illegal surface gold-mining, who thinks a journalist or media house is on to him or her, making such an accusation: in the hope of destroying their credibility and possibly frightening them off permanently – but this happens to be a brilliant young man who is a rising political star widely respected and admired in the media generally for his affability and humility (and deservingly so – or at least, deservingly so in the past, when his party was in opposition, at any rate).

Is one to conclude therefore that he too has unfortunately been infected by that dangerous virus of invincibility that deludes politicians who win power into thinking that somehow they are the masters of the universe – and therefore cannot be queried or contradicted in good faith under any circumstances: especially by insignificant writers they have never heard of before? Well, personally, I have very little time for an over-pampered and largely-incompetent political class, which has superintended the steady deterioration in the quality of life of ordinary Ghanaians, since the overthrow of Nkrumah in 1966: whiles ruthlessly feathering their own nests, by providing themselves with perk after perk whiles in office: even as they slice up our nation for the benefit of the sundry foreign carpetbaggers they collaborate with to rip our nation off in the name of foreign direct investment and market capitalism. Consequently, the idea that a youthful minister in a regime with precious few truly world-class individuals in it has the impertinence to accuse me of blackmailing him is simply too much to stomach. I will not tolerate that kind of lip from any politician in Ghana no matter which side of the spectrum they come from or how important he or she thinks they are – as I am neither afraid nor in awe of any of them: most of whom one regards with a certain degree of contempt for their monumental incompetence in not being able to provide ordinary Ghanaians with a good quality of life over the years, because they are completely bereft of original thinking.

Let that cheeky sod read as much of my writing as he possibly can find the time in his busy schedule for – and then perhaps he will understand why Kofi Thompson is incapable of any blackmail. I shall wait patiently for an apology from him – for being so imprudent and arrogant as to dare accuse a patriot and a sincere individual (who wouldn’t even dream of hurting a fly) who treasures his free-spirit and takes an independent stance in all discourse in the public sphere (in an effete nation full of sycophants, mercenaries, and moral cowards) of blackmailing him. Whoever in the media it was that advised a decent fellow like him to place that outrageous phone call during which he had the gall to accuse me of blackmailing him certainly did him a great disservice – for it was a grave error of judgment on his part for taking the tack he went on. My advice to him – and to all the ministers in this regime – is to treat every Ghanaian citizen (including journalists) he interacts with, no matter how insignificant he might think that individual is, with some respect. If I had been Kweku Baako (God bless him) who left him that note ages ago, would he not have promptly responded to it? He must learn to be careful what he says to those who question him – for he and his colleagues are there to serve our country as members of a regime that says it wants to run a transparent system: not lord it over ordinary folk. I may be a complete nonentity, but the fact that he is a minister in the government, is of no consequence to me – as I am not and have never been beholden to those who wield power in our country. In any case it is only those who are afraid to die who are frightened of the powerful in society – and fear of death, fortunately for me, is not one of my many weaknesses. Above all, he must never to be so cheeky to his elders – and ought to remember that wise old Ghanaian saying: “No condition is permanent.” Kofi Thompson is no blackmailer, Hon. Haruna Iddrisu – and he always wants you to remember that bald fact of life as long as you are active in Ghanaian politics it. Massa, I beg, do not tread where angels fear to tread. A word to the wise…

The stooges for neocolonialism are alive and well in Ghana – and still as powerful as ever.

The lackeys of Western capitalism are hard at work, making sure that the political party that made a number of promises to Ghanaians, including one it made directly to those who opposed the Vodafone takeover of Ghana Telecom (GT), and got their votes on the strength of that specific promise, gets as many excuses as it can possibly assemble, to enable it get away with not fulfilling that particular election promise.

What are discerning, independent-minded, and nationalistic Ghanaians to make of the rather curious argument being made in certain quarters, that reversing the takeover of GT by Vodafone will hurt Ghana – because it will make it a less attractive place for foreign investors?

Have those who make that illogical and self-serving argument stopped to ask themselves, for example, whether or not the fact that the previous New Patriotic Party (NPP) regime eventually succeeded in getting rid of Malaysia Telecom, ever stopped Malaysians or other foreign nationals from continuing to show an interest in investing in our economy?

Did even the many partial-nationalizations and full-scale nationalizations of private foreign companies, undertaken by the Acheampong military regime in the 1970’s, as result of its policy of seizing the commanding heights of the Ghanaian economy for Ghanaian citizens; ever stop foreign investors from eyeing Ghana as an investment destination?

What is it about Ghana’s educated urban elite that makes them lack self-belief to the extent that they more or less despise their own kind but bend over backwards to help foreigners, particularly non-African and lighter-hued foreigners?

Do those who say that foreign investors will lose confidence in Ghana if the Vodafone/GT deal is cancelled not understand that ultimately we must do what the Japanese and the South Koreans did to lift their countries out of poverty after the Second World War – and concentrate on empowering Ghanaian entrepreneurs to help us lift our country out of poverty?

The Vodafones of this world do not come here to help us build our nation – they only come to our country in order to exploit us and pile up as much profit as they possibly can for their overseas shareholders.

Since Vodafone was happy to give a secret stake in the privatization of the state-owned telecom company in Kenya, to some powerful individuals amongst Kenya’s corrupt ruling elite, can it not be argued that that makes it a company that is not only willing to condone illegalities, but also take part in unlawful actions if need be, in order to gain access to markets in Africa?

Would that perhaps be the reason why those in the previous regime, who are said to have benefited from the Vodafone takeover of GT, ensured that a law indemnifying all those who struck that deal from prosecution (if any illegal actions arising from that one-sided transaction ever came to light eventually), was hurriedly passed by parliament?

Just how does something that so clearly flies in the face of the constitutional edict that enjoins all Ghanaians to fight corruption, help in the fight against corruption in our country, and the rest of Africa, I ask, dear reader?

Is corruption not a cancer we must all fight if this continent is ever to grow and prosper and see an end to endemic poverty – so why do some want Ghanaians to fold their arms and do nothing to right an egregious wrong, done their country in an opaque privatization deal, which amounted to a massive rip-off of a poor developing nation, by a predatory multinational company aided and abetted by powerful local self-seekers amongst Ghana’s ruling elite?

At a time when corporate governance issues have assumed such importance in the Western capitalist nations, where much of the present economic crises facing those countries have been blamed on the unethical actions of greedy corporate executives, what makes those who think that taking Vodafone to task, because of the discovery of any unethical practices they might have engaged in during the takeover of GT, is going to make foreign investors whose businesses are underpinned by corporate good governance principles, wary of investing in Ghana?

On the contrary, ethically-run overseas companies that are committed to the principles of corporate good governance in all aspects of their businesses will only be too glad to operate in an African environment, in which corruption is not tolerated.

Perhaps those who make those inane arguments about foreign investors losing confidence in Ghana because we elect to rid ourselves of a company that acted unethically and unlawfully in a privatization deal, really ought to talk to those companies that were also interested in taking over GT, but lost out to Vodafone, because they never had a level playing field in the “bidding process” in a real sense: since vital information that would have affected the final figures they offered for GT, was more or less withheld from them.

Not being told the full extent of the total assets of GT that the government was going to make available to the winning “bidder” in the privatization of GT, was a material fact that amounted to their being deliberately misled by those who stood to benefit from a Vodafone takeover of GT.

Consequently, it will surprise Ghana’s stooges for neocolonialism to discover that far from alarming those companies that competed with Vodafone to buy GT - but lost out because crucial information was withheld from them - the cancellation of the Vodafone takeover of GT will rather be hailed as a just outcome.

And will elicit fulsome praise for the government from all those companies - who instead of vowing never to invest in Ghana because Vodafone had been given its just deserts, will commend the Mills administration for being bold and principled enough to correct an injustice done our country, by those who allowed Vodafone to buy GT for a song.

That is why cancelling the Vodafone takeover of GT, if any illegalities or unethical actions are unearthed by the probe into the deal, will never make genuine and principled foreign investors lose confidence in Ghana as an investment destination.

The existence of widespread corruption in the continent is what puts off genuine and serious foreign investors and makes them decide against investing in Africa – because they know that they can never get justice in the law courts of such nations.

We will only be seen to be applying the rule of law in dealing with any infractions of our laws by Vodafone in the takeover of GT – if the outcome of the probe into the takeover deal results in our bringing them to book. That can hardly be a situation over which genuine and serious foreign investors whose businesses are underpinned by corporate good governance principles will lose any sleep over – if they are minded to invest in Ghana.

Let the Mills administration keep its promise to those who voted for them because they were opposed to the takeover of GT by Vodafone and decided to vote for the party that said it would take a second look at the takeover deal to see if there were any irregularities in the GT privatization upon their assumption of office,

If we are serious about fighting corruption, no foreign investor, including Vodafone, must ever be rewarded for breaking our laws by engaging in corrupt practices.

At the barest minimum, Vodafone must, amongst other things, agree to assume those debts of GT that Ghana was unfairly burdened with by Vodafone, because it made that a condition for the purchase of its 70 per cent stake – and it must also pay our country the true value of GT: which even little primary school children in Ghana are aware, is a figure not less than some US$5 billions.

Perhaps a practical solution to this most outrageous of injustices will be to simply change the existing shareholding structure of the company. For most discerning, independent-minded, and nationalistic Ghanaians, even a 70/30 share allocation in favour of Ghana would be acceptable – on condition that Vodafone agrees to sell their share back to Ghana and accepts a collateralized future receipts arrangement (contingent upon the company’s profits) in lieu of cash upfront as payment if it ever wants to offload its shares in the company in future.

On that basis, there is no reason why the day to day management of the company should not continue to remain in the experienced and efficient hands of Vodafone (which can still keep the Vodafone brand-name as the restructured company can be known as Vodafone Ghana Telecom as a goodwill gesture on Ghana’s part).

Speaking as a follower of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah (of blessed memory), that is an outcome one feels will be acceptable to most patriotic Ghanaians who opposed the takeover of GT by Vodafone on national interest grounds – short of the government booting Vodafone out of Ghana for any unethical and unlawful actions it engaged in during the takeover.

That is a practicable and sensible outcome that can be described as an equitable solution, which ought to settle accounts fairly to the mutual benefit of Vodafone and the Ghanaian nation-state. The Mills administration must not listen to those negative and self-seeking types who do not understand that as an investment destination, Ghana is without compare in Africa – whether or not it boots out unethical foreign investors who shortchange it in privatization deals. A word to the wise…

One simply has to hand it to the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) propaganda machine – which is currently running rings round those who are supposed to disseminate the Mills administration’s “narratives” to the general public: so that ordinary Ghanaians do not become disaffected and impatient with the government.

To describe the government’s public relations effort in that direction thus far, as inept, is to be charitable – for how can that small army of spokespersons allow clever people like Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei, to come on Metro TV’s “Good Evening Ghana” current affairs programme, and reel off statistics comparing Ghana’s economy at the end of the period in office of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) regime in January 2001, and that of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) at the end of that regime’s tenure in January 2009, and get away with it? One only hopes that the new position given to Dr. Tony Aidoo will bring some steel into the government and help make the government’s effort at countering the NPP’s sophism a great deal more effective.

It is important that the Mills administration understands clearly that occupying the high moral ground is key to their success in countering the NPP’s sophism – and getting Parliament to pass a new law requiring government appointees and their spouses, from the president down to district chief executives to publicly publish their assets, is crucial in establishing their credentials as a regime that is serious about fighting corruption.

Corruption is the single biggest problem facing our country and one that all Ghanaians want to see an end to – and the Mills administration will continue to fail to stem the tide of discontent that arises periodically as a result of the NPP’s sophism, if they do not put clear blue water between their party and the NPP.

That new law on transparent asset declaration will represent, in the minds of the general public, that clear blue water. In the meantime, let that small army of government spokespersons take a cue from the most uncharitable of the critics of the previous government (the ones who care deeply about the stability of our country, i.e.), who insist that those in the NPP who pretend that they are comparing like with like, in comparing the economic performance of their regime, at the end of its tenure, with that of the NDC in 2001, are engaging in sophism – because to make such an unfair comparison amounts to intellectual dishonesty on their part.

Perhaps it ought to be made clear, that what the clever Dr. Anthony Akoto Oseis conveniently forget to point out to Ghanaians, in pretending that one can put the two regimes on an equal footing, in the disingenuous comparison game they are playing so deftly, is the small matter of the NDC regime being saddled, throughout its tenure (from 1992 to 2001), with the Sisyphean task of servicing our crippling external debt – something that was draining the very lifeblood out of our nation. In that sense, it was miraculous that the NDC was able to achieve all that it did during its tenure (which was considerable), in view of what it had to grapple with, but which the NPP regime, fortunately for it, did not have to contend with.

Perhaps an appropriate sporting analogy to illustrate that point, would be that of a boxer (the NDC) with both hands tied behind his back, who is pushed into the same ring to fight an opponent with both hands free (the NPP) – and at liberty to pummel him into submission despite having a shorter reach and lower weight: because it is not a fight of equals.

It would be interesting to know just how the NPP would have fared in office without our large external debt being cancelled during its tenure – which would have enabled us make a like with like comparison of the end-of-term economic performance score-card of the NDC and the NPP regimes. If it hadn’t been for the breathing space that debt cancellation gave the NPP to grow the economy, they would certainly not have had access to their beloved capital markets for a start, even for the securitized debt some of them milked for all it was worth – and mortgaged our country’s future so recklessly piling up.

It is that desire of the NPP’s powerful greedy-brigade to profit personally from debt that has now saddled our nation with such endless debt – and has largely brought about the present economic crisis we face. Looking back, perhaps one got an inkling of what might have been, in that sense, when a hapless President Kufuor, newly-sworn into office as president and completely at sea as to the path to take, in resolving the conundrum of an economy beaten to pulp and stymied by debt-servicing (and akin to the living-dead), which had been handed over to his new regime, promptly told Ghanaians, as reality suddenly hit home hard that his party’s many campaign promises were not going to be easily fulfilled, that (to paraphrase him) our country would have to cut its coat according to the size of its cloth – and that he was the man the Almighty God had sent to make Ghanaians swallow the bitter economic pill that would eventually make their sick economy get better.

That was way before the powerful crooks in the NPP regime discovered the golden path to personal riches in kickbacks from sundry contractors and regime-crony Titans in our financial services sector: who prospered mightily from the fat fees and commissions they earned from our daft forays into the piranha-infested capital markets of the West, in addition to those criminal (because it amounts to mortgaging the future of our nation) collateralized future receipts arrangements that those bright sparks recommended – and enabled all of them to succeed in sending their personal net worth into the stratosphere, as they quickly acquired: hotels; mega-supermarkets; mansions galore; the choicest parcels of land; pretty young bimbos with expensive tastes in cars and Hollywood-style mansions; etc. etc.

The NDC must learn from and take on board the important lesson that the public’s positive reaction, once they got to know that Ghana International Airlines (GIA) was costing taxpayers US$1.5 million every month, represents. Once they discovered the scale of the debt that GIA had succeeded in piling up in the short period it had been in existence, many ordinary people made it plain that they were quite happy to see GIA being allowed to die a natural death and disappear like all inefficient and badly-run commercial entities do the world over – particularly if it was costing Ghana that much every month to keep it flying and keep on losing money on top of that.

The Mills administration must tell Ghanaians the practical results of the reckless and imprudent policies that were the realities behind the smoke-and-mirrors economy dressed up as a booming economy, which the NPP claims it handed over to the new NDC regime. Clearly, knowing for example, precisely what Ghana is currently having to fork out, in terms of the regular interest payments on the various loans, including the securitized loans Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei and Co made our country take on, as well as the unconscionable rape of many state-owned entities, including the State Transport Company (STC) and the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), will let most objective and fair-minded Ghanaians see the NPP‘s stewardship in a completely different light.

The truth of the matter, is that Dr. Anthony Osei Akoto and Co just got lucky for a period, because the Western powers, spotting a new Ghanaian regime full of dedicated African stooges for neocolonialism and super-malleable lackeys of Western commercial interests, moved quickly to prop up a clueless and vulnerable regime, which was completely at sea in the early stages of its tenure: and promptly decided to cancel Ghana’s large external debt (which is what some of us had been advocating for during the 1990’s – to enable African nations to be in a position to finally start growing their moribund economies), and increase the flow of aid to our country in addition. Although Dr. Akoto Osei and Co themselves did not have the nous or the imagination to make that argument during the 1990’s, they benefited greatly from debt relief – and there are those who say that they ought to have done a great deal better than they did if they had not allowed self-interest, as opposed to advancing the national interest and promoting the common good, guide their every action whiles in power.

The Mills administration must point out the practical effects on our nation today, of the self-seeking policies and actions of those who messed up Ghana’s economy under the NPP because they were so corrupt – and now seek to stop that from coming to light by saying that negative talk about the economy will erode confidence in our economy. The government must not buy that argument – as any investor worth his salt seeking to invest in our economy knows the reality of a nation with bright prospects but with an economy currently suffering from acute “debt-distress” (to use a World Bank/IMF euphemism).

The fact that the NPP mortgaged our country‘s future is not news to overseas analysts. Why, do those who make that curious argument think that those opaque offshore special purpose vehicles set up for the securitized loans frenzy, which the NPP indulged in, are unknown to analysts in the capital markets of the West, particularly those who specialize in emerging markets?

Fundamentally, Ghana is a great place to invest in for those who take a long-term view and see a future in Africa – because it is a politically stable democracy and has a welcoming, hardworking, and intelligent population. However, if things are bound to get worse before they get better, then the government ought to lay the blame for our present difficulties squarely where it belongs: at the doorstep of the NPP – so that ordinary people will understand precisely what Ghanaians will have to contend with as a people, going forward, and be prepared to face the hard times with equanimity: in the hope that a better Ghana will eventually emerge by the end of the tenure of the Mills administration.

That is why it is so vital that the government effectively counters the sophism of the NPP’s propaganda machine. The question is: is the NPP that is making those hypocritical noises about human rights amongst other matters today, not the same political party, some of whose most prominent members actively sought to deny Ghanaians their choice in December 2008?

Did they not move heaven and earth to try and rig the run-off of the December 2008 presidential election: from the very beginning of that electoral process (using hired thugs, who were given police and military uniforms and armed, to go round snatching ballot boxes) to its conclusion – at which point they resorted to the law courts on a public holiday, in the hope that a judge they initially believed to be one of their sympathizers, would aid them in achieving the ends they sought in stealing the election at the eleventh hour”.

Incidentally, “right judge” was the phrase actually used by Atta Akyea and his fellow-travellers in the NPP (caught on a tape recording of their conversations) to describe such judges – whom they apparently thought could be relied on to deliver the right judgments, in cases in which they had an interest.

It is astonishing that today, there are some individuals in that selfsame NPP, who have the gall to pretend that they are the champions of democracy and the rule of law – and are even accusing a regime that is actually acting strictly according to law (as it moves to hold past government officials accountable for their years in office), of persecuting them and acting unlawfully. On top of all that transpired during the December 2008 elections, dear reader, is it not intolerable that the NPP’s propaganda machine, is still being allowed by that small army of government spokespersons, to get away with such outrageous nonsense on bamboo stilts?

Whatever else it does, intellectually, the Mills administration ought to grasp the fact that it needs to counter the NPP‘s sophism – and do so effectively: and they can start to do so by listing and progressively disseminating to the public the many crimes against our nation that those NPP members who participated in the gang-rape of Mother Ghana committed whiles in office. They ought to release detailed dossiers on the many white-collar crimes and shenanigans that went on in many state-owned entities after auditing them. Doing so for the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), for example, will make it plain to ordinary Ghanaians how clever sabotage at that vital installation, has made a complete nonsense of any government plans for ensuring reasonable fuel pricing.

The government must not forget that the NPP is still largely controlled by the few powerful individuals who hijacked it during their years in power and used it as their powerbase to amass wealth that they cannot possibly account for today – and who want to destabilize the Mills administration (with the help of their placemen who still occupy sensitive positions throughout the public sector) so that they can continue to get away with their crimes against Ghana. Even as it works to improve the circumstances of our country and its people, countering the NPP’s sophism must go on side by side with fixing the economy, as that is in the long-term interest of our nation. It is important that the small army of government spokespersons understand clearly and without any ambiguities that that is the only way for the new NDC regime to eventually succeed in bringing about the better Ghana it promised Ghanaians. A word to the wise…

Saturday, 13 June 2009

Many a Ghanaian patriot and Nkrumaist heaved a huge sigh of relief, when our erstwhile Hypocrite-in-Chief, who also served as the Commander-in-Chief of our armed forces during his tenure, completed his second four-year term of office at midnight on 6th January, 2009 – because we were glad to see the end of an era during which the ruling regime succeeded in dividing our nation along tribal lines like no other regime has ever done since we gained our independence. Sadly, by the end of its tenure, the Kufuor administration had also succeeded in turning our country’s silent majority into moral cowards, who pretended that all was well with our nation when that was clearly not the case. The Kufuor-era was a period when the miasma of unfathomable greed enveloped Ghana completely – a truly tragic time during which we became a society with a culture of dog-eat-dog selfishness, in which looking out for number one, was the personal philosophy of a people, whose traditions encouraged them to live communal lives: which entailed sharing the little one had with neighbours, and caring for each other in family clans.

From what we are now hearing about the shenanigans involved in the military recruitment process in the years towards the end of the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) period in office, it would appear that no institution was sacred for those nepotistic and tribalistic politicians – who abused their positions in a manner seldom seen in Ghanaian politics. Clearly, some of the members of the NPP are totally shameless – for, how can politicians who whiles in government, were so cynical and unprincipled, that during the December 2008 elections they had no qualms recruiting thugs, whom they provided with military and police uniforms to wear, and even issued arms to (to impersonate real soldiers and policemen), and dispatched to go round the country snatching ballot boxes in key electoral areas, complain about the new leadership of the military cancelling last year’s recruitment exercise? Do they not understand that the military institution, which is the guardian of the territorial integrity of our homeland Ghana, is the one institution that must not be allowed to become infected by the national disease of corruption, and our unswerving devotion to the”Cult-of-the-mediocre”?

The question that patriotic, discerning, and independent-minded Ghanaians want answered is: How are Ghanaians to know that some of those whose names were mysteriously inserted into the list of army recruits were indeed not some of the NPP “action-troopers” that Lord Commey once boasted about? Who in this country does not remember the extraordinary sight of the top-ranking soldier in Ghana saluting the tribal Chief of Kufuor and Co. at a durbar in Kumasi? What sight could be more nauseating to Ghanaian nationalists and patriots who cherish the enterprise Ghana – and who deeply resent Kufour and his tribal Chiefs’ treasonable attempt to Balkanize our unique nation of diverse-ethnicity, which Nkrumah succeeded in moulding into a united and modern African nation-state, whose citizens shared a common destiny, and which served as a shining example in harmonious multi-ethnic co-existence, to the rest of Africa? Did we all not condemn the National Democratic Congress (NDC) regime under President Rawlings for bringing his revolutionary cadres into the military because we did not think it was right to politicize our military – so why should we allow them to destroy the military by manipulating its recruitment processes to serve their secret Akan tribal-supremacist agenda?

The plain truth is that President Kufuor’s shameful and divisive tribal-supremacist ways nearly destroyed the esprit de corps of the Ghana Armed Forces towards the end of his tenure. Who in this nation who is truthful and impartial, will not attest to the fact that the small but powerful cabal of Akan tribal-supremacists in the presidency, who held the NPP to ransom throughout President Kufuor’s eight-year tenure, obviously had a secret tribal-supremacist agenda that included making the Ghana Armed Forces a tool to enable them achieve their dream of permanently dominating our country? Just what possessed them to describe their tribal Chiefs as “Kings” in the diplomatic passports issued to them – when in fact there are no monarchies in the unique nation of diverse-ethnicity known as the Republic of Ghana? How many tribal Chiefs in Ghana go round this country in motorcades led by police dispatch riders – as if they were heads of state? Has there ever been any regime like theirs in our history, which deliberately used the whole machinery of state to promote the overweening ambitions of their tiresome publicity-seeking tribal Chiefs – to the extent that their Chiefs could get away with all kinds of infractions of the law? Who in this country does not know that Kufuor’s tribal Chiefs illegally sold vast swathes of land belonging to the Ghanaian nation-state with impunity – and that that abomination started right from the very beginning of their tenure?

We must speak plainly and boldly against those who seek to tear our country apart with their foolish dreams of restoring a feudal system that thrived on superstition, ritual killing, deception, and the enslavement of others. We only have to look at nations torn apart by tribal divisions across Africa to understand why we must never forgive the small but powerful group of Akan tribal-supremacists that dominated the NPP under Kufuor, and which by all appearances unfortunately still remains influential in that party today. Do they think that any genuine Nkrumaist and nationalist will ever sit unconcerned and allow a few greedy and selfish tribal-supremacists to make us go through what nations like Sudan; Chad; Zimbabwe; Kenya; DR Congo; Rwanda and Burundi have gone through – just because our country has become a nation in which good and honest people, in a society full of hypocrites and moral cowards, are too afraid to speak out against tribal-supremacists? We must not tolerate their attempt to destabilize our country so that their past sins against our country can remain hidden from ordinary Ghanaians. Their outrageous attempt to besmirch the reputation of the present leadership of our military and the disrespect they showed the minister of defence in Parliament must be condemned in the strongest possible terms. Are the present military leadership and the minister of defence not simply correcting one of the many egregious actions taken in the past – when those who hijacked the NPP during their years in power infected virtually every institution of state in our country with their absurd and ridiculous Akan tribal-supremacist nonsense on bamboo stilts?

The fact of the matter, is that it would be highly irresponsible on the part of the minister of defence and the current military leadership, to allow standards in the armed forces to be lowered – which is what they would be doing, if having detected the existence of the anomalies, they condoned the illegal actions of those who smuggled in those names, during the recruitment exercise in question. Why, are they not aware of the fact that our military is recognized the world over as a military force with some of the finest fighting men and women in the world? Is it not an institution that has an enviable UN peacekeeping reputation and is widely acknowledged for its excellence? Under the circumstances, the decision by the military to use the money saved by canceling the 2008 intake’s training, to improve the infrastructure of the training school, is pretty sound – as it assures the future of that vital institution. Do those hypocritical politicians not know when to stop their chicanery? When they adopt that nauseating holier-than-thou hypocritical attitude in Parliament, do they think we have forgotten their roles in the perpetration of sundry illegalities, such as that massive fraud that the railroading through Parliament of the sale and purchase agreement for VALCO to International Aluminum Partners represents? Did any of them bat an eyelid when the crooks amongst them were leading our nation down the garden path in that instance? What primary school child in Ghana does not know that that grandly-named special purpose vehicle was set up specifically to hide the stake of the NPP’s greedy-brigade in the privatization deal that never was?

We cannot, and must never allow the high standards of our military, to be sacrificed for such rogues – and let those who worship so fervently at the “Cult-of-the-mediocre” present the Ghana Armed Forces to their confounded deity-of-incompetence as an offering for their many sins of the past. No politician must be allowed to attempt to play politics with the military – for it is far too important a national institution to be used as a political football. It is time the honest and principled members of the NPP took control of their party. They must not allow their party to become a tool and handmaiden of the small cabal in the presidency under their regime, which hijacked their party for their own selfish ends, during their years in power – and who now want to use it to shield themselves: in the hope that it will prevent their being made to pay for their iniquitous actions of the past. Why, are they not the very people whose greed made their party lose the trust of discerning Ghanaians? Do the decent members of the NPP not understand that playing to the gallery on behalf of those who lost them the elections will not ultimately help the cause of their party? They must understand that in the Ghana of today, it is not the opinion of the millions of “My-party-my-tribe-right-or-wrong” myrmidon-types, whose unflinching support they can rely on, that matters. The real kingmakers in Ghanaian politics today, are the discerning, patriotic, and independent-minded individuals, whose crucial votes now decide who is elected as Ghana’s president. Rather than play to the gallery, let them pause and think – and work hard to prise their party from the iron-grip of those whose greed and tribal-supremacist negativity lost them the December 2008 elections. A word to the wise…

Many a Ghanaian patriot and Nkrumaist heaved a huge sigh of relief, when our erstwhile Hypocrite-in-Chief, who also served as the Commander-in-Chief of our armed forces during his tenure, completed his second four-year term of office at midnight on 6th January, 2009 – because we were glad to see the end of the era of a regime that succeeded in dividing our nation on tribal lines like no other regime has ever done. Sadly, by the end of its tenure, the Kufuor administration had also succeeded in turning our country’s silent majority into moral cowards, who pretended that all was well with our nation when that was clearly not the case. The Kufuor-era was a period when the miasma of unfathomable greed enveloped Ghana completely – a truly tragic time during which we became a society of dog-eat-dog selfishness, in which looking out for number one, was the personal philosophy of a people, whose traditions encouraged them to live communal lives that entailed caring for each other, and sharing the little one had with neighbours.

From what we are now hearing about the shenanigans involved in the military recruitment process in the years towards the end of the NPP’s period in office, it would appear that no institution was sacred for those nepotistic and tribalistic politicians – who abused their positions in a manner seldom seen in Ghanaian politics. Clearly, some of the members of the NPP are totally shameless – for, how can politicians who whiles in government, were so cynical and unprincipled, that during the December 2008 elections they had no qualms recruiting thugs, whom they provided with military and police uniforms to wear, and even issued arms to (to impersonate real soldiers and policemen), and dispatched to go round the country snatching ballot boxes in key electoral areas, complain about the new leadership of the military cancelling last year’s intake of recruits? Do they not understand that the military institution, which is the guardian of the territorial integrity of our homeland Ghana, is the one institution that must not be allowed to become infected by the national disease of corruption, and our devotion to the”Cult-of-the-mediocre”?

How are we to know that some of those whose names were mysteriously inserted into the list of army recruits were indeed not some of the NPP “action-troopers” that Lord Commey once boasted about? Who in this country does not remember the extraordinary sight of the top-ranking soldier in Ghana saluting the tribal Chief of Kufuor and Co. at a durbar in Kumasi? What sight could be more nauseating to Ghanaian nationalists and patriots who cherish the enterprise Ghana – and who deeply resent Kufour and his tribal Chiefs’ treasonable attempt to Balkanize our unique nation of diverse-ethnicity, which Nkrumah succeeded in moulding into a united and modern African nation-state, whose citizens shared a common destiny, and which served as a shining example in harmonious multi-ethnic co-existence, to the rest of Africa? Did we all not condemn the National Democratic Congress regime under President Rawlings for bringing his revolutionary cadres into the military because we did not think it was right to politicize our military – so why should we allow them to destroy the military by manipulating its recruitment processes to serve their secret Akan tribal-supremacist agenda?

The plain truth is that President Kufuor’s shameful and divisive tribal-supremacist ways nearly destroyed the esprit de corps of the Ghana Armed Forces towards the end of his tenure. Who in this nation who is truthful and impartial, will not attest to the fact that the small but powerful cabal of Akan tribal-supremacists in the presidency, who held the NPP to ransom throughout President Kufuor’s eight-year tenure, obviously had a secret tribal-supremacist agenda that included making the Ghana Armed Forces a tool to enable them achieve their dream of permanently dominating our country? Just what possessed them to describe their tribal Chiefs as “Kings” in the diplomatic passports issued to them – when there are no monarchies in the unique nation of diverse-ethnicity known as the Republic of Ghana? How many tribal Chiefs in Ghana go round the country in motorcades led by police dispatch riders – as if they were heads of state? Has there ever been any regime like theirs in our history, which deliberately used the whole machinery of state to promote the overweening ambitions of their tribal Chiefs – to the extent that their Chiefs could get away with all kinds of infractions of the law? Who in this country does not know that Kufuor’s tribal Chiefs sold vast swathes of land belonging to the Ghanaian nation-state with complete impunity – and that that abomination started right from the very beginning of their tenure?

We must speak plainly and boldly against those who seek to tear our country apart with their foolish dreams of restoring a feudal system that thrived on superstition (including ritual killing), deception, and the enslavement of others. We only have to look at nations torn apart by tribal divisions across Africa to understand why we must never forgive the small but powerful group of Akan tribal-supremacists that dominated the NPP under Kufuor, and which by all appearances unfortunately still remains influential in that party today. Do they think that any genuine Nkrumaist and nationalist will ever sit unconcerned and allow a few greedy and selfish tribal-supremacists to make us go through what nations like Sudan; Chad; Zimbabwe; Kenya; DR Congo; Rwanda and Burundi have gone through – just because our country has become a nation in which good and honest people, in a society full of hypocrites and moral cowards, are too afraid to speak out against tribal-supremacists? We must not tolerate their attempt to destabilize our country so that their past sins against our country can remain hidden from ordianry Ghanaians. Their outrageous attempt to besmirch the reputation of the present leadership of our military must be condemned in the strongest possible terms. Are the present military leadership and the minister of defence not simply correcting one of the many egregious actions taken in the past – when those who hijacked the NPP during their years in power infected virtually every institution of state in our country with their absurd and ridiculous Akan tribal-supremacist nonsense on bamboo sticks?

The fact of the matter, is that it would be highly irresponsible on the part of the minister for defence and the current military leadership, to allow standards in the armed forces to be lowered – which is what they would be doing, if having detected the existence of anomalies, they condoned the illegal actions of those who smuggled in those names, during the recruitment exercise in question. Why, are they not aware of the fact that our military is recognized the world over as a military force with some of the finest fighting men and women in the world? Is it not an institution that has an enviable UN peacekeeping reputation and is widely acknowledged for excellence? Do those hypocritical politicians not know when to stop their chicanery? When they adopt that nauseating holier-than-thou hypocritical attitude in Parliament, do they think we have forgotten their roles in the perpetration of sundry illegalities, such as that massive fraud that the railroading through Parliament of the sale and purchase agreement for VALCO to International Aluminum Partners represents? Did any of them bat an eyelid when the crooks amongst them were leading our nation down the garden path in that instance? What primary school child in Ghana does not know that that grandly-named special purpose vehicle was set up specifically to hide the stake of the NPP’s greedy-brigade in the privatization deal that never was?

We cannot, and must never allow the high standards of our military to be sacrificed for such rogues – and let those who worship at the “Cult-of-the-mediocre” present the Ghana Armed Forces to their confounded deity-of-incompetence as an offering for their many sins of the past. No politician must be allowed to attempt to play politics with the military – for it is far too important a national institution to be used as a political football. It is time the honest and principled members of the NPP took control of their party. They must not allow their party to become a tool and handmaiden of the small cabal in the presidency under their regime, which hijacked their party for their own selfish ends, during their years in power – and who now want to use it to shield themselves: in the hope that it will prevent them from being made to pay for their iniquitous actions of the past. Why, are they not the very people whose greed made their party lose the trust of discerning Ghanaians? Do the decent members of the NPP not understand that playing to the gallery on behalf of those who lost them the elections will not help the cause of their party? They must understand that in the Ghana of today, it is not the opinion of the “My-party-my-tribe-right-or-wrong” myrmidon-types, whose unflinching support they can rely on, that matters. The real kingmakers in Ghanaian politics today, are the discerning, patriotic, and independent-minded individuals, whose crucial votes now decide who is elected as Ghana’s president. Rather than play to the gallery, let them pause and think – and work hard to prise their party from the iron-grip of those whose greed and tribal-supremacist negativity lost them the December 2008 elections. A word to the wise…

An advert for a fish-farming seminar in the Thursday June 11, 2009 edition of The Daily Graphic caught my eye – as I am constantly on the look-out for alternative income-generating opportunities that might benefit the young people of Akim Abuakwa Juaso, and help wean them off the illegal logging and illegal surface gold mining that is endangering one of Ghana’s only two evergreen uplands rain forests. I am particularly keen to ensure that that part of the Atiwa Range rain forest is preserved – and will even sacrifice my life, if necessary, to ensure that that is done. The same edition of The Daily Graphic also carried a news report that Mr. Abuga Pele had been appointed the acting national coordinator of the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) – and as someone who takes a great deal of interest in the younger generation, that too caught my eye. Being better-educated than my generation is, and mercifully totally “de-tribalised” they are the great hope for the future of our country, and will also serve as an example to the rest of Africa in harmonious multi-ethnic co-existence – as ethnic tensions gradually destroy the stability of key African nations such as Kenya, DR Congo, Sudan, and Nigeria..

The fish-farming seminar, which is apparently a private-sector Israeli-Ghanaian collaboration organized by a local consultancy firm, Silicon Consult, could very well serve as a model for the NYEP to work with private-sector entities to provide valuable skills for the teeming masses of young people one sees struggling daily to survive – selling various items to passengers in vehicles caught up in traffic jams in city streets and urban roads up and down our country. Many of them have drifted to cities across the country from the rural areas. For the obvious constraint of being financially-challenged, attending such private-sector seminars is out of the question for most young unemployed people. It might therefore be worthwhile for the NYEP to consider partnering the private-sector organisations that organize such life-changing seminars – in private-public-partnerships (PPP) to provide training in micro-entrepreneurship on a long-term basis for young people throughout Ghana. Such seminars ought to be held regularly throughout the country – and should be a key component of the development plan for the regions of the northern savannah belt.

Attending such seminars could literally transform the lives of tens of thousands of those young street vendors – who show their hard-working nature and sense of initiative, by being out on the streets hours on end daily, no matter what the weather is. As a society, we must harness their “can-do” spirit and make productive use of it, to help us increase the GDP of our country, at a time when the economies of virtually all our overseas trading partners have contracted. Mrs. Gladys Asmah, who was a fisheries minister in the previous New Patriotic Party (NPP) regime, worked incredibly hard selling the idea of fish-farming to Ghanaian farmers and the general populace. The present regime can build on what she was able to achieve – by getting the NYEP to use the PPP model to provide street vendors and other unemployed young people with training in productive endeavours such as fish-farming. I would urge the new national coordinator of the NYEP, Mr. Abuga Pele, to make the organisation more proactive – and send its employees out unto the pavements to inform those young street vendors of the availability of such seminar opportunities.

The NYEP could also work with district assemblies and private-sector consultancy firms, such as Silicon Consult, which placed the advertisement for the fish-farming seminar that caught my eye – and which made me do some lateral thinking about how the NYEP could literally help millions of young people to become micro-entrepreneurs using the PPP model. Whiles in office, Mr. Abuga Pele should also do all he can to visit Bangladesh, to see the amazing work Dr. Yunis the Noble Laureate has done there, to transform the lives of millions of poor Bangladeshis – and invite him to visit Ghana to see how the NYEP could partner his multi-faceted Bramen organisation in Ghana to help empower millions of poor Ghanaian families. Perhaps through the NYEP Ghana could even eventually develop fish-farming by young people into a non-traditional export industry – and help our country to become a major exporter of African catfish to Asia: in parts of which it is said to be an expensive delicacy.

Nearer home, in their effort to protect the large private forest reserve they own on a freehold basis, and which is part of the Atiwa Range uplands evergreen rain forest, the owners of P.E. Thompson Farms & Commodity Exports Limited, who are all committed environmentalists, recently succeeded in halting the Akim Abuakwa Juaso operations of a surface gold mining company, Solar Mining – which was mining illegally in the foothills of that part of the Atiwa Range rain forest without a valid permit from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Solar Mining has apparently bought a vast swathe of farmland from cocoa farmers in that area - and is said by some of those associated with it to have permission to mine in a fifty-kilometer stretch from Anyinham to Asiakwa. How a surface mining gold mining company that is unknown to the EPA’s mining permit department can have a permit to operate in a fifty-kilometer stretch of the Atiwa Range rain forest from Anyinham to Asiakwa, is beyond my comprehension – but that is another story altogether: which I will save for another day.

The fish-farming idea might be a perfect opportunity for small-scale mining companies like Solar Mining to start diversifying away from surface gold mining, and profit from a more sustainable and environmentally-friendly commercial undertaking – and they could work with entities like Silicon Consult in such ventures. There is some synergy between their mining operations, which involves considerable digging of the earth, and the digging of large ponds for fish-farming that they could leverage. Speaking for myself, apart from looking forward to attending the seminar, I shall try and visit Mr. Abuga Pele’s organisation’s offices – to talk to him about the possibility of the NYEP working with the staff of the Rural Enterprises Project (REP), and the Fanteakwa District Assembly, to get Silicon Consult to train the members of the Akim Abuakwa Juaso Youth Association to become fish-farming micro-entrepreneurs. Fish-farming could be one more alternative income-generating activity that could help reduce the illegal logging and the illegal surface gold mining that unfortunately goes on in that part of the Atiwa Range rain forest.

I will certainly be glad to live long enough to see the day, when the relaxing sound of water gently lapping the walls of fish-ponds owned by young rural dwellers in areas once blighted by surface gold mining pits, will replace the cacophony of the incessant and peace-shattering sound emitted by the multiplicity of chainsaws, that are daily busy destroying that important rain forest. Sadly, the Forestry Service of the Forestry Commission, and the traditional authorities of Akim Abuakwa, both seem unable to halt the activities of the criminal syndicates carrying out illegal logging and illegal surface gold mining in parts of the Atiwa Range rain forest with such impunity. Their sternest critics even call them hypocrites and say that posterity will judge them harshly – for giving the world the false impression that they are champions of conservation and environmental activists without compare: when it appears that in reality they only pay lip service to fighting environmental degradation merely for the publicity it brings them. Whatever be the case, those of us at the sharp end, pray that as the implications of global warming begins to dawn on many more Ghanaians, staff of the Forestry Service and the traditional authorities in Akim Abuakwa, and elsewhere in that part of Ghana’s Eastern Region, will finally wake up to their responsibilities towards Kwaebibirim – and support the efforts of those private individuals in Akim Abuakwa Juaso who are actually working for sustainable rural development in that part of rural Ghana – and at considerable personal risk to ourselves too, if I may add. A word to the wise…

Thursday, 11 June 2009

The gripping story of the sad fall from grace, of a tall and handsome young man blessed with considerable charisma, who was given an opportunity to blaze a trail for other young people, by being appointed to the government as a minister, but who unfortunately did not have the strength of character to make a success of his opportunity, has engrossed Ghanaians lately.

The Alhaji Munkata saga, clearly demonstrates the need for President Mills to act quickly to get Ghana’s political class to unite and put a bill together, and under a certificate of urgency, get Parliament to pass a new law that will require all government appointees and their spouses, to publicly publish their assets: both before assuming office and after the end of their tenure.

Since human beings are neither saints nor angels, we must not think that Ghana will not end up like Nigeria, if we do not take the necessary steps to ensure that the more dishonest members of our political class do not get the opportunity to steal public funds.

It is vital that our nation does not miss the opportunity to use our oil and natural gas revenues to transform our society – and turn our country into an African equivalent of the egalitarian societies of Scandinavia.

Those powerful and wealthy individuals in the oil industry, who know the many opportunities available in our country, and who apparently even offered money to some of our previous leaders as inducements, will do exactly the same to the present crop of leaders in charge of our country – as they will want to continue exploiting our country and its people for as long as they possibly can.

As we recall, President Kufuor once famously said that members of his regime were offered money by investors – although they never accepted it: but rather told such investors to go away with their money (when he should have ordered their immediate arrest, for attempting to bribe the president of the Republic of Ghana, no less).

President Kufuor and a small but powerful Akan tribal-supremacist cabal in the presidency, succeeded in dominating the New Patriotic Party (NPP), by maintaining an iron grip on it throughout his tenure.

As we all know, they prospered mightily during the eight years President Kufuor was given the privilege of leading Ghana – and succeeded in ushering in a golden age of business for members of their family clans, their favourite traditional rulers, and their cronies (both male and female).

All that was made possible because from the very beginning, when they started off by receiving kickbacks in the Osu Castle, which they apparently did not account for (one recalls the agonies of the then party chairperson Mr. Haruna Esseku – who despaired that they were not making the kickback-money available for the use of their party), no one could challenge them to see whether or not graft was suddenly enriching them.

That was because ultimately there was no way of comparing their personal net worth at the time they first entered office, and the boom years when the kickbacks had started flowing “waa waa” and they had become seriously rich - and were acquiring a multiplicity of parcels of land; hotels; giant (by our standards) supermarkets; secret stakes in special purpose offshore entities; buying posh homes and expensive luxury cars for delectable young bimbos; etc. etc.

It is imperative therefore that we rely on more than mere platitudinous statements from President Mills, when government appointees are being sworn into office, if we are to be successful in our quest to fight corruption and protect public funds from being dissipated by corrupt public officials.

A majority of Ghanaians voted for President Mills during the run-off of the December 2008 presidential elections, largely because they believed that he was an honest man, who was the candidate most likely not to end up presiding over a MK11 version of the Kufuor era – which is widely acknowledged to be the period when corruption reached its apogee in Ghana.

We cannot afford to see a repetition of those dark days of infamy, when powerful and amoral individuals in leadership positions, driven by unfathomable greed, used their positions to grab as much as they could possibly get away with – in an 8-year orgy of avariciousness unparalleled in our nation’s chequered history, during which they turned our democracy into a kleptocracy: and Ghana became a world power in crony-capitalism.

The only way President Mills can effectively control his ministers and other government appointees, and ensure that they do not follow the example of the greediest crooks from the Kufuor era, and end up destroying his reputation for honesty permanently, is for him to ensure that a law is passed quickly to force all elected officials, from the president himself down to the last district chief executive in the land, and their spouses, to publicly publish their assets.

President Mills cannot possibly leave a good legacy without such a law in place – and he must ensure that it is passed in the quickest time practicable: if he wants to have a successful tenure and be remembered till the very end of time as the leader who brought such legislation into being to protect public finances in Ghana.

Perhaps another lesson he can learn from the downfall of Alhaji Munkata is to ensure that whistle-blowers are not victimized in our country.

That can be done by passing legislation that specifically protects them from any form of victimization – by criminalizing such victimization in every shape or form it takes. In other jurisdictions, the transgressions of whistle-blowers (if any) are invariably overlooked, if they expose corruption in officialdom.

It will benefit our country tremendously if we adopt the same approach here – and offer them decent monetary rewards too: to encourage even more whistle-blowers to emerge. President Mills is clearly a very wise and God-fearing leader – so one hopes that he will heed such advice.

The fact of the matter, is that ordinary Ghanaians are far more likely to agree to make sacrifices, and put up with the hard times they are bound to experience before things get better, under a president they regard as an honest and reforming leader, trying hard to make a corrupt system more transparent.

And ordinary people will ignore all the “politricks” of his corrupt opponents and the harshest of his critics - because they know that most of those amoral and greedy rogues took turns to participate in the brutal and callous gang-rape of Mother Ghana.

The passage of a law requiring government appointees and their spouses to publicly publish their assets before and after their tenures, will send a clear signal to Ghanaians that a new era of transparency has finally dawned – and make them become more patient and bear with the Mills administration, as it sorts out the economic mess from the past, and works hard to bring about the better Ghana they promised them.

That will guarantee him an 8-year tenure too – so let the president heed the call to get such a law enacted and put onto our statute books quickly. It must certainly be on top of his personal list of priorities. A word to the wise…

Tuesday, 9 June 2009

Ghanaian politicians are such a complex breed – and sometimes one wonders if any of them actually ever think of the well-being of our country, and the unremitting awfulness of the quality of life, which most ordinary people are forced to endure, because of the straightened circumstances of our country.

Take the matter of those tiresome and mostly disingenuous arguments, which went back and forth at a point in time, about the depreciation of our currency, for example – between members of the ruling party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), and the largest opposition party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

I vividly recall the erudite Nana Ohene Ntow, the general secretary of the NPP, going on and on, with glee, about the depreciation of the cedi on Metro TV’s “Good Morning Ghana” newspaper review programme – and wondered to myself at the time whether he thought that under his regime Ghana’s foreign exchange system was a pure floating one.

Did that genius not know that his government spent nearly a billion dollars propping up the new Ghana cedi, so that the world would see a punch-drunk currency proudly “walking” their phony talk about Ghana’s booming economy – which only benefited a tiny politically well-connected proportion of our total population?

Looking at the number of dilapidated police barracks; hospitals, schools, and other similarly-challenged public institutions across the country, whose heads one sees frequently on television news programmes, soliciting for good Samaritans to come to their aid, could a caring government that thought less about saving face at all costs, no matter the long-term cost to our nation, not have spent that sum of money on some of those forlorn institutions they so neglected: whiles forever telling us what a stellar economic-performer Ghana under their regime was?

Where did all that HIPC money go, one wonders?

Recently, it was reported that some of the members of the NPP had met a section of the media at an Accra hotel. It is no secret that most of those journalists also benefited greatly from the slush-fund operated by our secret services – during that super-generous spymaster extraordinaire Mr. Francis Poku’s era.

That was a period during which scores of people in our national life were compromised – as they happily sold their consciences for zillions: and in return helped the NPP regime execute its master-plan to remain in power permanently.

I wondered which other key groups, apart from the NPP media praise-singers, that the NPP had also been meeting in secret – and what could be the real agenda of the current crop of politicians from a political tradition, whose elitism makes most of its adherents (such as the Maxwell Kofi Jumahs and Atta Akyeas) think that they were born to rule our country: a characteristic that made their political forebears, then in opposition to the Convention Peoples Party (CPP), refuse to accept the legitimacy of a political party that had trounced them on three separate occasions in free and fair elections (in 1951, 1954, and the last and most decisive, in 1956).

They rather resorted to acts of terrorism to physically eliminate Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah in the hope of bringing his rule to an end that way. Incidentally, Mr. R. R. Amponsah, who died a few days ago, plotted a coup with some of his Busia-Danquah self-seeking fellow-travellers, against Nkrumah’s regime as early as 1958 – just a year after we gained our independence and when Ghana was a thriving multi-party democracy. May his soul rest in peace.

It is this feeling that ruling Ghana is their birthright, which made Maxwell Kofi Jumah so indignant, that ordinary Ghanaians actually wanted regime-change, in December 2008. It was also what made him bold enough to even have the effrontery, to inform one of those myrmidon-types they recruited to help them rig the elections, that the NPP would not allow Ghanaians to remove them from power.

Incredibly, some of those thugs and criminals were even issued military and police uniforms, and a number given arms – with orders to go round key electoral areas in the country to snatch ballot boxes: with the assurance that they would have the protection of senior police commanders if things went awry.

As we all know, Maxwell Kofi Jumah was caught on a tape-recording saying that Rawlings was the only one they had to fear in the NDC – and at one stage was arrested with a sniper’s rifle with a telescopic-sight attached to it in his car, on the very day both he and Rawlings happened to be in the Tien constituency. Just what was Maxwell Kofi Jumah up to, one wonders?

Clearly, the NPP as an entity is not going to resort to terrorism and organize the myrmidon-types (including those tiresome pea-sized-brained serial-callers) they so ruthlessly manipulated in their quest for eternal power, to plant bombs around the country – but now that the heat is on and investigations are bringing to light the perfidy of the once-powerful crooks amongst them, who participated in the brutal gang-rape of mother Ghana, some of them are definitely up to some mischief and must be watched carefully.

Incidentally, it is rather odd that to date the police have not invited those anti-democrats for questioning – particularly as regards the identity of the senior police officers they were relying on to rescue the myrmidon-types sent to snatch ballot boxes if their plans unraveled.

Perhaps the president must now be ruing his charitableness in not wanting to let the public know the depths to which our Alice-in-wonderland (and veritable smoke-and-mirrors) economy had sunk under the NPP, at the time his party took over the running of our country.

The unfortunate saga of Ghana International Airlines (GIA), that clueless and hapless airline equivalent of a Dodo, for which Ghana Airways was deliberately killed off, so that some members of the NPP greedy-brigade could successfully rip-off our nation on a regular basis and increase their personal net worth at taxpayers’ expense, best serves as a metaphor for Ghana during the eight years that the NPP was in power for.

The question we should find answers for, is: How did it come about, that Ghana International Airlines, set up, ostensibly, on the basis that private capital would fund it (and thus free the Ghanaian nation-state of the expensive burden that Ghana Airways was said to have been), was, by the end of the tenure of those who sanctioned the new airline being set up, costing the taxpayers of Ghana some US$1.5 millions every month, and to make matters worse, did not even possess a single aircraft of its own?

Yet, the airline that was liquidated to make way for GIA was a national flag-carrier that had valuable routes around the globe; owned valuable properties in some of the most expensive places in cities across the EU; and actually owned a fleet of aircraft crewed entirely by its Ghanaian employees.

It was the financial equivalent of a sleight of hand, in which our leaders allowed foreigners using an opaque special purpose offshore vehicle, and who neither owned a scheduled airline nor aircraft of their own, to end up benefiting from one of the most egregious examples of the socialization of private risk ever seen in our country – whereby GIA ended up owing vast sums to the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), a state-owned pension fund.

Incidentally, SSNIT’s munificence was legendary under the NPP – because the powerful politicians who turned our democracy into a kleptocracy, allowed sundry high-flying tycoons to use it as a bank of last resort, for their private schemes: a prime example being the so-called consortium that built that monument to the Kufuor regime’s crony-capitalism: the “AU village project.”

Did the masters of the universe and apostles of private enterprise (super-greedy and ruthless souls who clearly had no time for the woolly-headed sentimentality of national pride entailed in our insisting on our nation owning a national flag-carrier at the time), not make out originally, that the US investors in GIA were white knights in shining financial amour, who would use their philosophy of greed, triumphant market-capitalism, to finally free our country from the curse of owning a national carrier that was a financial burden?

So just how did apparently well-heeled private American investors (at any rate well-heeled enough to have been allowed by our clever erstwhile leaders to partner our country in GIA) end up being bailed out by a state pension fund in Ghana?

To add insult to injury those selfsame American investors, having fallen out with the crooks who enticed them into Ghana to act as legal fronts for them, are now suing our country in a legal process overseas – and doubtless hope to eventually walk away with zillions of Ghanaian taxpayers’ money.

Finally, dear reader, and lest I forget, perhaps that loud NPP mouthpiece, the notorious Daily Guide (which is so savvy about matters financial that it is blissfully unaware that a client who gets his bankers to open an irrevocable letter of credit in favour of a supplier, is as good as gold for that supplier – who can “discount” it for cash immediately if the bank is a reputable one), can do us all a favour, by asking Dr Anthony Akoto Osei to tell the good people of Ghana (when the Daily Guide and their fellow NPP media praise-singers and sundry sycophants, next meet NPP big-wigs in another conclave at a posh hotel, i.e.), whether the letter of credit he authorized was an irrevocable one or not.

And whiles they are at it, perhaps the Daily Guide can also ask him why it had to be paid to a third party (as stated in its own columns), instead of directly going to Dr. Negreponte’s organisation – especially as Negreponte’s organisation works in partnership with governments elsewhere in Africa and the rest of the developing world.

The Daily Guide will then discover why in the end, if any one has to face the music for those computers, it might probably be Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei and Co., and definitely not the present minister of finance, Dr. Kwabena Duffour.

The devil, they say, is in the detail – and it will be interesting to know if other developing nations were ever quoted a per unit price of US$195 for the computers: and whether or not they were all informed of the price-change at the same time, when the price was said to have been revised upwards to US$205 per computer (if it ever actually was revised upwards to that particular figure, i.e.). Hmmm, Ghana – eyeasemm oo: asem ebaba debi ankasa!

I shed tears of joy, when I heard that the mighty Royal Dutch Shell, which for decades had gotten away with environmental pollution of apocalyptic proportions in Ogoniland and the rest of the Niger Delta, had finally more or less acknowledged in a US federal court in New York, that the brilliant Nigerian writer, the late Ken Sorowiwa, did indeed have a point about its shameful perfidy in Nigeria. A friend, who always says: “May General Sani Abacha’s soul roast in the hottest part of hell!” whenever I mention the late Nigerian dictator and African kleptocrat-extraordianire’s name, in a roll-call of the most brutal of our continent’s long line of military despots, called me to tell me the good news that Royal Dutch Shell had agreed an out of court settlement and would be compensating the families of Ken Soriwiwa, and the families of the others he was hanged with, as well as the people of Ogoniland with some US$15 millions. We must thank God for such little “humanitarian” (the word used by a Royal Dutch Shell spokesperson to point out they did not accept any culpability) mercies one guesses – as Royal Dutch Shell could have strung the process out till eternity.

The ruling by the US federal law court that means in principle that American companies can indeed be sued in the US law courts, by foreign entities and individuals, for matters arising from the consequences of their overseas operations, is a huge boost for all pan-Africanists who want to fight the massive corruption one finds in many places in Africa, and which is fueled by the complicity of the foreign carpetbaggers, who come to our continent to buy the crooks amongst our leaders. Pan-Africanists have prayed for years, that an equitable way is found to enable us successfully fight the many foreign rogues, who come to Africa to exploit our continent and its people, in their own home countries. Such companies, like the defunct Canadian surface gold mining company Bonte Mines did in the village of Bonte, leave a horrifying trail of misery in their wake, as they repatriate their ill-gotten wealth back home – where they would never dream of putting up for even one second with environmental destruction on the scale they are able to get away with here: because our leaders are too ignorant to understand that in the long-term, we are better off leaving the gold in the ground, because we will eventually spend all the wealth we create in future (from our oil and natural gas revenues), to ameliorate the damage we are busy causing to the natural environment, today.

Who in Ghana that cares about our country and ordinary Ghanaians, is not scandalized by the gross human rights abuses committed by surface gold mining companies that are brutally gang-raping mother Ghana (abuses which are incredibly condoned by the stooges for neo-colonialism amongst our rulers, who billet troops in mining towns to oppress poor rural folk complaining about predatory surface gold mining companies, polluting the natural environment in vast swathes of the Ghanaian countryside), simply because our corrupt leaders have over the years been beholden to mining companies with deep pockets? Future generations of brilliant, young, gifted, and environmentally-aware Africans, will always remember Ken Sorowiwa’s amazing triumph from beyond the grave over a powerful multinational, which still actively participates in the brutal gang-rape of the Niger Delta area in Nigeria, and shamefully continues to contribute to global warming, because it, like its co-conspirators against Nigeria’s Ogoniland people, still flare natural gas and pollute their homeland with impunity.

Naturally, not investing in the necessary infrastructure to harness the natural gas they flare, in order to protect the natural environment, makes perfect sense economically for the oil companies, simply because it adds to their fat bottom-lines. We all look forward to the day, when environmental degradation by foreign companies in the continent, will be a thing of the very distant past – and pan-Africanists across the continent will be able to reminisce (in celebrating a continent finally free of environmental polluters), that once upon a time, during the dark days in Africa, the homeland of our ancestors was awash with ruthless and predatory foreign companies, which were able to destroy much of Africa’s then largely-pristine natural environment, and cruelly exploit the citizens of nations across the continent with total impunity, because they were able to buy corrupt African leaders, who ruled during that dreadful era in our common history. Pan-Africanists the continent over salute the memory of Ken Sorowiwa and his gallant comrades – who died fighting a brutal dictatorship allied with ruthless multinationals (that collaborated to oppress the people of Ogoniland and other Niger Delta communities), and whose fighting spirit was able to triumph in the end, even from beyond the sacred ground they are interred!

Saturday, 6 June 2009

I had an irate phone call yesterday, from a gentleman who had just read an article I had written on Friday 5th June, 2009, about the minister for youth and sports, entitled: “The Alhaji Munkata Saga: A Litmus Test President Mills Must Pass!”

He was disappointed in what he thought was an unhelpful article – from the standpoint of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) regime. “I thought you were for us, Kofi,” was his petulant complaint to me. Perish the thought.

I am not for any political party – I am an Nkrumaist and a nationalist who wants to see the creation of an African equivalent of the egalitarian societies of Scandinavia in our country.

Being an Nkrumaist is a mindset – one that engenders self-belief in an African and one that gives one a vision that makes one seek the creation of a modern, efficiently-run, prosperous, and fair society in Ghana (and the rest of Africa too, if I may be so bold).

It is important for those in the NDC, as well as politicians from all the other political parties in Ghana, who think that journalists should side with their party as a matter of policy, to disabuse their minds of that idea quickly.

The job of patriotic and nationalistic journalists, who see their profession as a noble one, and regard it as a vocation, rather than a means to the acquisition of wealth (through the sale of one’s conscience to the highest bidder), is to protect Ghana’s national interest – which at any given point in time, is the maintenance of a free and open society, in which those who lead the Ghanaian nation-state pursue policies that are always in the best interest of society: and ensure the well-being of the ordinary people of our country, in whom sovereignty ultimately lies.

The discerning Ghanaians, the so-called “floating voters” whose crucial votes contributed to the election of the NDC to power in December 2008, did so because they were fed up with the incompetence and greed of the few powerful individuals, who had such an iron-grip on the New Patriotic Party (NPP) regime, that they were able to pursue self-serving policies that benefited them and their favourites personally – but which were inimical to the long-term interests of our country.

Symbolic of the greed and self-seeking nature of some of the most powerful politicians in that era, was the railroading through parliament, of a sale and purchase agreement for VALCO to a non-existent entity, known grandly as International Aluminum Partners.

The crooks in the previous regime who dreamt up that fraud, thought they could inveigle two ethically-run international metals conglomerates, Norske Hydro and VALE, whose businesses are clearly underpinned by corporate good governance principles, to go along with their clever little scheme to add another valuable national asset, to their well-diversified personal investment portfolios, in yet another self-serving privatization deal.

However, both multinationals vehemently denied ever agreeing to purchase VALCO. Clearly, the indecent haste to get parliament to sanction that fraudulent sale and purchase agreement, was simply to present Norske Hydro and VALE with a “done-deal” (to use local parlance) – a fait accompli that would put any fears they had aside: and encourage them to agree to buy VALCO more or less on their own terms: and help the politicians behind the deal to send their personal net worth a tad higher up the stratosphere.

It was the same modus operandi that made the powerful crooks in the previous regime, throw in the national fibre optic backbone-infrastructure, as a “sweetener” for Vodafone, in that shabby Ghana Telecom privatization – an egregious example of a self-serving privatization deal for the politicians who drove it, and who had the audacity to go as far as getting parliament to pass a law indemnifying all the deal-makers on both sides, from any future prosecution for issues arising from that particular privatization.

Yet, that was clearly against the constitutional edict that enjoins all Ghanaians to fight corruption – and consequently an illegality that has no basis in law and cannot be de jure under any circumstances.

To patriotic Ghanaian journalists, politicians who were so shortsighted that in the 21st century ICT age could even think of selling a vital ICT platform such as Ghana Telecom, for short-term financial gain, simply did not deserve to be returned to power.

No one who is a visionary today, can fail to grasp the fact that this is an age, when it is feasible for far-sighted national governments to envision a time, in the not too distant future, when nations will consider it cost-effective to put free computers (akin to GPRS mobile phone handsets!) into the hands of all their adult citizens, as mobile “citizen data-banks” and “e-governance modems” that will make it possible not only for the nation-state to locate each citizen at any given moment (a boon for the personal security of citizens; for crime-fighting; and for the tax-collection agencies!), but also enable various agencies of state to have all manner of positive interactions with the citizenry, for their mutual benefit.

Selling Ghana Telecom simply to provide funds to help tide their regime over temporarily for a short period was foolish in the extreme – and as far as I was concerned, politicians who so clearly lacked vision to that extent, did not deserve to lead out country.

It was on that basis that the Kofi Thompsons of Ghanaian journalism were so critical of the previous regime and rooted for Professor Mills, during the campaign for the December 2008 presidential and parliamentary elections. Consequently, let no one in the NDC think that I am on their side – for, I am an independent-minded fellow who is on the side of truth, my country, and its entire people: and for whatever brings about a prosperous, free, and egalitarian society, in our homeland Ghana.

My conscience is not for sale at any price to anyone – and I will criticize the Mills administration if it is in the national interest to do so whenever the need to do so arises: just as I did the Kufuor administration before it.

I detest former president Kufour with a passion, for example, not for personal reasons, but for the era of “dog-eat-dog” selfishness; unfathomable greed; nepotism; and blatant tribalism, which he ushered in during his tenure.

It is with the same passion that I equally detest the miasma that former President Rawlings’ hold on so many Ghanaians represents.

The simple and painful truth, for many Nkrumaists, is that it is only the “colonial-mentality” of many of Rawlings’ followers, which makes them literally worship a man, whom they would never dream of hero-worshiping (some for twenty odd years), if he had been a black man, rather than a half-caste, who incredibly thinks democracy is not suitable for Africans.

How can anyone with even a drop of African blood in him or her, and who respects Africans, not understand that the yearning for freedom, beats no less strongly in the hearts of Africans, than it does in the hearts of people of other races, I ask?

Democracy may be an unsatisfactory system of government, but it is the best system of government known to humankind, for those who understand that it is only in free and open societies, in which there is competition of ideas, that the best ideas come to the fore to move such societies forward.

That is why the most innovative societies in the world happen to be the Western democracies – which happen to be the freest societies on the planet Earth. Human beings are not angels – and a system of government that has checks and balances designed to prevent dictatorship and in which regular elections are held, to choose who leads the nation, should never be said to be unsuitable for Africans in the 21st century ICT age.

(Incidentally, it is the selfsame “slave-mentality” that enables Rawlings to mesmerize the myrmidon-type of Ghanaian today, which enabled Europeans to occupy our country and colonize it in the past – and sadly continues to make many Ghanaians tolerate the divisive and superstition-ridden institution of Chieftaincy: that bastion of backwardness, which masquerades as the custodian of our culture, but holds our country back so much because it is based on inherited privilege, which is the greatest enemy of any meritocracy. It is the self-seeking and opaque nature of that institution that made Chiefs and their lackeys collaborate so willingly with the Europeans who colonized our country. But I digress.)

The NDC must work towards bringing about the better Ghana they promised Ghanaians – and do so as quickly as they possibly can: and stop complaining to journalists who speak their minds openly. The Kofi Thompsons of Ghanaian journalism will continue to maintain their independence and continue to act as society’s watchdogs – not mercenary regime guard-dogs: so let politicians across the spectrum beware.

As it happens, I am a nobody who comes from a simple, humble, and honest family, which, like many ordinary middle class Ghanaian families, though cash-poor, is asset-rich (and I say this humbly, not boastfully – simply to drive home the point that money does not mean anything to me).

I am a writer who wants to be on the right side of history, and hopes that his name will live on till the very end of time, through my writing – not a philistine driven by greed who wants to be rich at all costs: and thinks that the end justifies the means (because he can’t see beyond his flat nose and thick lips) and is therefore willing to pocket zillions secretly from corrupt politicians and stay “on-side” with them.

So let those politicians who think that every Ghanaian has a price and can be bought, beware. Kofi Thompson’s conscience is not for sale at any price to anyone. Period.